Back in the Day
My great-grandmother, America White Price, chewed tobacco, drank sauerkraut brine, and salted her rice until you spat, sputtered, and needed a glass of water to wash the taste out. She stood only 4'5" tall. Barely weighing 85 pounds, she was aptly called Little Granny by all who knew her. One time my grandfather, her son, couldn't find her. Papaw went throughout the house looking for her. He finally found her. She'd slipped into the crack between the wall and her bed and was sound asleep.
On the first day of summer, as I watch my grandkids play on the blow-up water slide, I'm reminded of my own childhood when I spent time with her and my grandparents in West Virginia.
Back in the hills of Bald Knob, WV, Little Granny never gave up her old ways. When anyone showed up at her house, they were considered company, and she fixed them something to eat. When Papaw built a nice bathroom onto her house, she refused to use it, opting for the old outhouse instead. She did concede at one thing...a kitchen sink instead of a bowl under the water pump.
I miss the smell of summer in the hills dense with foliage. I miss watching her sit on the front porch stringing green beans freshly picked from her garden. I muss those days, and I miss her. Thank you, Little Granny, for the sweet memories of my youth.
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